Brussels, 01/04/2004 (Agence Europe) - Last Wednesday, at an oral hearing before the European Commission to continue into Thursday, the American software company Oracle presented its arguments in favour of its purchase of the American PeopleSoft. This operation is currently the subject of an in-depth inquiry due to the competition problems this will pose to the application software market, as it will reduce competition from three to two players (see EUROPE of 19 November, p.15). Oracle claims that the operation will allow it to compete better with its direct rival, the German SAP, current leader in packaged software, and Microsoft which, according to Oracle, "is aggressively extending its position in enterprise applications software". The American group also believes that the software market is accessible to competition, and that the regulators should take account of the presence of many small active competitors in their analysis, even though these do not supply large clients. The Commission takes the opposite view, saying that the barriers to market penetration are set high. The verdict will be returned on 11 May at the latest. It is worth noting that the American Department of Justice has also tabled an anti-trust complaint about this operation, the result of which will be known on 7 June.